Murder Indictment Issued In Shooting

May 14, 1986|By Rich Pollack, Staff Writer

A Palm Beach County grand jury Tuesday issued a first-degree murder indictment against a 42-year-old man charged with shooting his wife only six days after she had asked a judge to protect her from him.

In other unrelated matters, the grand jury found no reason to issue indictments in three separate shooting incidents.

The grand jury charged Tauno Niemisto with the April 30 shooting death of his wife, Kathleen, 41, who was shot in the head while she slept in her suburban West Palm Beach home.

Niemisto, a Finnish immigrant who worked as a carpenter, also suffered what was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, according to police.

Detectives, in court records, indicated that Niemisto told them he was angry with his wife when he shot her because she had initiated divorce proceedings against him.

Nine days before the shooting, Niemisto had been charged with battery of a spouse, according to a Sheriff`s Office spokesman.

After his release from jail, his wife went to court seeking a restraining order to keep him from hitting her. County Judge Michael Miller issued the order but did not bar the husband from living in the same house.

In a letter to the court, Kathleen Niemisto said that she was afraid of her husband.

``I`m sore all over from struggling with him and being hit,`` she wrote. He ``has hit me before and given me a black eye. He also threatened me with a knife.``

In unrelated incidents, the grand jury found that two separate fatal shootings were done in self-defense.

The grand jury found the shooting of Robert Edwards by Albert Linton to be justifiable and also determined the shooting of James Hamilton by Oklahoma Sheeley to be justifiable. Both fatal shootings took place in West Palm Beach.

Edwards, 50, of 10th Street, died March 7 after being shot several times in the chest.

The shooting, according to police, was apparently the result of an argument with Linton, 39, over a dice game.

Linton, according to police, had been stabbed prior to the shooting.

Self-defense was also involved in the shooting death of James Hamilton, according to the grand jury.

Hamilton died April 16 as a result of a gunshot wound. Police believe Hamilton and Sheely, 60, were arguing when the shooting occurred, according to court documents.

Investigators said they believe both men may have been armed with shotguns at the time.

The grand jury also found no reason to indict Michael Major, 19, on murder charges in connection with the death of Andre Thebeau.

Thebeau, 27, was killed on Jan. 27, after several men knocked on the door of his West Palm Beach home.